Saudi Arabia to ask US to withdraw troops

SAUDI ARABIA: Facing rising anti-US feeling among its citizens, Saudi Arabia is expected to ask the US to withdraw its troops and aircraft from the kingdom. This request could be put forward as soon as the US has completed its military campaign in Afghanistan.

A pull-out would deprive Washington of the use of the state-of-the-art Prince Sultan Airbase which has been used as a key command and control centre for the Afghan offensive. Some 5,000 US troops and an unspecified number of warplanes are stationed at the desert base south of the capital, Riyadh.

The withdrawal of troops and aircraft would end a US presence that began a week after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and grew to half a million troops and vast amounts of weaponry during the 1991 war to liberate Kuwait.

Crown Prince Abdullah, the effective ruler of Saudi Arabia, signalled a major change in the Saudi-US relationship last August when he called for a parting of the ways due to major political differences. Since last spring he has pressed the Bush administration to intervene even-handedly in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and has grown sharply critical of Washington's refusal to do so. The September 11th attacks against the US, blamed on the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, and involving 15 Saudi citizens prompted an anti-Saudi media campaign in the US which has angered the ruling family.

Yesterday, the Afghan interim leader, Mr Hamed Karzai, travelled to Riyadh on his first visit abroad since assuming power. He is seeking Saudi funding for a $30 billion reconstruction programme for his country, ravaged by wars paid for by Riyadh and by the Saudi-supported Taliban regime.